Rumour Mill: Van Dijk bid | Rangers | Celtic

Arsenal and Manchester City to bid for Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk; Rangers budget talks could see Lee Wallace and David Templeton leave Ibrox; Swansea join chase for Dundee United’s Andrew Robertson, plus the rest of today’s football news and gossip

Celtic’s Virgil van Dijk a Manchester City, Arsenal target

Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk is being monitored by Arsenal and Manchester City, who are considering a £10 million bid for the centre-back. The 22-year-old, who has turned in a number of impressive performances for Neil Lennon’s side, was signed from Eredivisie side Groningen for just £1.6 million last summer.

And a call-up to the Dutch national side is only a matter of time, according to Lennon: “It’s inevitable, if he keeps going and progressing the way he is, that he’ll become a Dutch international. He makes it look easy. People seem to think he has a laid-back attitude, but his work ethic is very high and he’s a kid who wants to get better. I’d like to think Virgil would get a chance with his country.” (Daily Express)

Rangers budget talks could see biggest earners leave

Rangers’ biggest earners could be shown the exit door in the aftermath of budget talks between manager Ally McCoist and chief executive Graham Wallace. The two are currently engaged in discussions to map out Rangers’ finances, which are widely expected to be cut following strong indications from Wallace that the club needs to cut its cloth.

Lee Wallace and David Templeton are named by The Sun as two players who are most likely to be asked to leave should Rangers need to reduce their costs. Wallace has been one of Rangers’ most widely acclaimed performers, and has attracted interest from Nottingham Forest. Templeton, who has been told he is part of McCoist’s long-term plans despite a lack of recent first-team action, may also be shown the door because of his high wages. (The Sun)

Efe Ambrose makes plea for Celtic to keep squad together

Celtic defender Efe Ambrose has pleaded with the club hierarchy to keep the current squad together. Neil Lennon’s squad are currently on a training camp trip in Turkey, and are without Georgios Samaras, whose future is currently under scrutiny. Celtic have sold several key players in recent seasons, including Victor Wanyama, Gary Hooper and Kelvin Wilson. Fraser Forster and Joe Ledley are among the players at Parkhead attracting interest from other clubs, but Ambrose has called for continuity.

“The way the manager talks, keeping the team together is going to benefit the club. Last year some players left and you need continuity in the club to make it better. Long term, it makes you much better and stronger than selling one player every year and bringing one new. It is not going to help.” (The Sun)

Swansea join chase for Dundee United’s Andrew Robertson

Two English Premier League sides are competing for the signature of Dundee United full-back Andrew Robertson. Swansea have joined Everton in monitoring the 19-year-old, although neither team has entered a formal bid. Robertson, whose representatives have said he is in no hurry to leave, has been in impressive form for the Tannadice side, having played League Two football just a year ago.

Robertson’s representative Liam O’Donnell said: “A number of EPL clubs have been in contact regarding Andy. However, he will ignore the speculation and focus on continuing his development at Dundee United. He is perfectly happy at United.”

Dundee United are thought to be seeking around £1.5 million for Andrew Robertson, double the figure that the Arabs had initially sought. (The Sun, Daily Record)

Dean Shiels seeks McCoist talks on Rangers future

Dean Shiels’ agent is seeking urgent talks with Rangers manager Ally McCoist to discover whether the player has a future at Ibrox.

The 28-year-old has had only 15 minutes of first-team football – coming off the bench when Rangers were 6-1 up against Forfar on 3 December – in the past two months, despite being fully fit during that time.

Dean has been fit for two months now,” he said. “He’s been working hard and even doing extra training – he’s champing at the bit to play again. We’re in the dark as to why he hasn’t featured more often. I left a message for Ally last week but he hasn’t got back to me yet.

“I appreciate that this has been a hectic schedule for the club and I’m not trying to tell him how to do his job. I’m just looking to have a chat so he can help Dean to stay focused. As a footballer you can become disillusioned when you’re not playing. It can be difficult doing all the hard graft during the week and then having nothing to show for it on a Saturday.” (Scotsman)

Terry Butcher begins Hibernian clear-out

Terry Butcher has told four Hibernian players that they are free to leave the club. Kevin Thomson, Rowan Vine, Tim Clancy and Tom Taiwo are now free to find new clubs as Butcher seeks to reduce the Edinburgh outfit’s wage bill while adding new faces to Easter Road.

All four players are entering the last six months of their contracts and have been told they will not be offered new deals. (Daily Express)

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

The Scotsman provides news, events and sport features from the Edinburgh area. For the best up to date information relating to Edinburgh and the surrounding areas visit us at The Scotsman regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website The Scotsman requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.